I admire you and also envy you.

As for cost of travel - because airlines and accomodation people gauge you for finals in Oz; after my local rugby league club made the grandfinal in Sydney ( which is just down the track 1047miles) - airfares + accom + ticket for the final cost me about the equivalent of 800 pound in your money.

Speak for yourself .... if I was a Catholic I'd have been cannonised by now .

I'd love to tear those two statements to sheds but nice guy I am I'll desist .

Goddamn elbow giving me a lot of gyp at the moment . Painful , swollen ... thinking maybe bursitis . Not sure what odd ball remedy to try .... comfrey , garlic chillis and dandelions has a nice ring to it

Said to one of my kids the other day "Well me and Mum have been together for about 37 years " ....

Mrs Kiwi overheard .... " Try 48 " next month ........ Instant depression

... but my brother has had one marriage and two de factos .... six kids to the last two . Two of them on P amphetamines with truckloads of problems .

Mine all [ touch wood ] relativity okay .... so I guess it says something for stability .

Gidday Goonie ...when I arrived in England in 1972 I used to avidly read articles in the Sun, Mirror , etc about Cruyff , Neeskins , top Poms all chomping at the bit to sign for Arsenal , sounded great I lapped it up like strawberries and cream
.... but then age sets in , you get wiser and more cynical .

Newspapers have sports pages to fill .... so when nothing is happening .

What to do .... can't just leave that space blank ... invent something

" Harry Kane childhood Arsenal fan wants transfer to Emirates "

Guaranteed to grab the attention of any gullible Arse / Spurs fan ..... papers sold

A monk in Tibet would know we all want Mustafi to please f*** off .... somewhere ... anywhere .

So invent some ficticious destination for departure , decent money ..... to add a nice subtle ring of truth , involve someone with ex Arse connections doing club stuff somewhere else , Gazidis , Vieira , Arteta , Bergkamp , Overmars .......
"make weight in a swap deal plus money with Ajax for Tagliafico " ...... must be true ... we all salivate ... papers sold

On the flip side get someone who is doing well we treasure Lacazette , Aubameyang ..... look around and find a big club who need a striker ... Barcelona , PSV , Man U ...... quote "agents have been seen in the West End" , "sources close to " , ... Voila ..... again all total bll**cks .. papers sold

... too easy I should have been a journalist .

Just watched a video of 19 year old De Ligt giving a post season celebration speech to the Ajax fans after their season. 19! This guy is a proper leader on and off the pitch. Looks like Barcelona are getting an absolute gem

Well you do spin a good yarn from time to time Pete.

And as for the elbow, try rubbing it with liniment. And at your age, you shouldn’t be watching those types of films.

So let me ask this: if Barca come in with a really silly offer for both Lacazette and Aubameyang what do we do? Mind you what Stan does may not accord with common sense.

I suspect if they came calling for Lacazette he might like the idea of CL football and might ask to move. He needs to prove himself at the highest level if he is to break into the french squad. If we beat Chelsea he may want some guarantees that he will be picked for all CL games.

I think Özil will only go to another club if we pay him a big bundle of money to leave. Would you do such a deal to get him off the books? He asks for 20mil to leave - what would you do?

Enjoy.

Santi Cazorla has been called up to the Spanish squad.

This season he scored 7 goals and provided 11 assists.

We still have El Nenny, Iwobi and Xhaka in our squad.

Congratulations to everyone at Arsenal for another job well done.

This is apparently UEFA's response to the clubs complaint about the final.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 18086.html

Blah blah blah but if they really made an assessment of the location, travel, accomodation etc then let them release in full the document to the public. Then we can see how good their assessment process is.

Or have they got something to hide.

At the end of the day if it wasn’t all about money the moment an all English final was announced they would have changed the location to somewhere more logistically better.

Also the response fails to mention the obvious question of Henrik Mhikitaryan more likely having to dodge Kalashnikov fire than incoming tackles whilst in Baku (Jesus Christ it even sounds like somewhere off Star Wars)

Personally I don’t think you can sell either player under any circumstance. We won’t be able to replace their impact on the side.

If we were to sell it would be madness to accept anything lower than 100m+ For each player if Zaha is being touted for 80million.

Surely Barca are going to sign Griezmann anyway. It’s been on the cards for years hasnt it

I wonder how well received City will be if they equal two historic events of the past 20 years if they either get a treble or go unbeaten. When both us and Man Utd did it, it was hailed as possibly, once in a lifetime and both were deemed by some that it wouldn't happen again, if it did, for many years. Especially with the increased money in the league where all the clubs have money.

Yep, if only the powers-that-be had listened to you when you begged for Santi to be given another contract.

My father told me I'd go blind if I kept doing that.

I said 'what if I do it just until I need glasses ?'

The rumour is more to do with Atletico wanting Lacazette to replace Griezmann who is very likely Barca bound, I don't think Barca want him but Atletico will have £90M ish in the bank to buy a replacement with, I can see him going if we don't get CL football next season, both because he is more likely open to the idea and because Kroenke will want to cover the loss we are making.

Baku or bust it really is...

Europa final is in a 68,700 seater stadium, actual official fans of both clubs looks like it will be less than 10,000 due to the cost of getting there. What will the atmosphere be like? Two small pockets of noisy away style fans in amongst 60,000 sponsors, competition winners and corporate types. Bizarre

...or risk one eye?

This is the team and subs (all 12 of them) is play in the Europa final
Čech, AMN, Sokratis, Koscielny, Kolasinac, Xhaka, torreira, Guendouzi, Özil, Lacazette, Aubameyang
Subs: Leno, mustafi, Iwobi, Nketiah, Elneny, Lichtsteiner, Willock, Monreal, Saka, Amaechi, Mavrapanos, iliev

I'd get rid of Özil. Horrible work ethic and disgusts me that he is getting paid so much money to exercise 4 times a week.

I'm not excited about the final. In fact, I have a lot of dread going into it because I have very little confidence we will win it despite Chelsea also playing badly down the stretch.

If we have to lose, I'd much rather in a PK shootout. I don't know why, it's just how I feel about it. If we win it, fine, I'll be happy even though I don't see us getting top 4 next season if we don't make changes.

Just getting to the final has made Emery's first season a success. We are 5th and so not much improvement league wise but unlike what happened when Moyes took over, we didn't lose ground and we ended up slightly ahead point wise. So, by any objective measure we have improved, albeit slightly.

But Arsenal fans are a little spoiled. We feel disappointed as a collective and I understand it as a fellow fan but we shouldn't be as disappointed as we have been. We should be disappointed in Kroenke. That's where our anger should be directed to.

I initially read posts and articles of Arsenal fans complaining about our ticket allotment and now I'm reading articles that we are struggling to sell the allotment. What?

Just my guess but I tend to think with older supporters at least, City's accomplishments are tainted due to the amount of money they were gifted by their owners.

The domestic treble still won't compare to our unbeaten season, Man Utd's treble and I'd even say Liverpool's so called 'Mickey Mouse' treble Man Utd's fans teased them about. But its an accomplishment nonetheless and I'm surprised its never happened before.

You might enjoy this at Man U's expense

The word you're looking for is allocation. An allotment is where you go to grow veg and get a break from the wife and kids.

Can't see City losing this but will ask the football gods for a miracle.

I'm envious. I'm sure it will be an adventure, regardless.

Surely means we are selling Lacazette

Apparently this guy usually gets stuff accurate

https://www.claretandhugh.info/arsenal- ... ke-target/

https://youtu.be/37Apscp3hsM?t=8

I'd be ok with selling Lacazette if we replaced him with Zaha. He would give more balance to the attack and add one player to the squad who can consistently dribble past opponents. He would improve the homegrown quota too.

good stuff

Get Zaha and keep Lacazette methinks. Last quick forward in his mid-twenties we got from Palace didn't work out too badly.

Well ideally, yes but it's unlikely that we will spend £80m on a player without cashing in on Lacazette or Aubameyang.

I find myself wondering how all the sponsors and corporate types are going to get there given the arduous travel options as described.

The FA Cup final is like something you'd see in a schoolboys league match where one side is just far too good for the other. For all the weirdness of the CL semifinals, this is probably more representative of what football has become. Sad really.

Financial doping has ruined football.

Didn’t watch the game but I’m assuming nobody even mentions city’s money

6 nil in a cup final is ridiculous

It happened with Chelsea and then with City. The media rarely mentions the amount of money they have in relation to their success since 2004 (Chelsea).
As soon as Roman stopped spending as much as when he first arrived, voila, they aren't winning as much.

Ha ! I’m unblocked !

where are you sourcing your lens from currently ...... Carl Zeiss , the Hubbell telescope ....?

No way in the world I'd want to be seen as taking Yankee Doodle Dandy's side on anything .... but you might have wanted to read passed the first meaning Brom

allotment ..noun
1.
BRITISH
a plot of land rented by an individual for growing vegetables or flowers.

2. the action of allotting something.
synonyms: allocation, issuing, issuance, awarding, grant, granting, administration, earmarking, designation, setting aside, budgeting;

3 . an amount allotted to a person or persons
synonyms: quota, share, ration, grant, limit, portion, allocation, allowance, helping, batch, slice, stint, lot, measure, proportion